The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 1917. THE WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9692, 21 June 1917, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 1917. THE WAR

Nonsense in Russia and stupidity in closo union with treason in England, and abetted by Ministerial invertebracy, are not going to force 'us to lose the fruits of the war in a morass of peace certain to subject the world once more to the floods of war. We aro going to win the war if wo havb to bury the pestilent pacifists in the lust ditch with the last dirty battalion of the German army, to which they treasonably pay divine honour. About that last ditch there is now little doubt. The power of the British Array has come to tho front. EVca the Wind worshippers of tho Hindonburg cult aro beginning to sec that its strength is capable to throwing the vaunted German in every wrestle. After Messincs these people will bo silent about the Gorman initiative,, to which they have clung with a tenacity they ought to have devoted to their own Countrymen. Of course they will never believe that the British Army, with tho French and Italian co-operating, will, with tho great sea power of the Entente, win the war, whether Russia or America, or both, fail us. These will not fail us. America is showing her capacity for striking as groat a blow as was ever delivered by any army in any age, with tho whole force of a nation united in spite of the activity of traitors and the schemes of cowardly pacifists. America will como into tho field as a great Democracy'. Russia, there is reason noyv to believe, will do the same ; at all events will exert tho power of her multitudes, well-equipped and trained. But if both fail, the Entente, with Britain as the core and mainspring, and France and Italy standing shoulder to shoulder, will prevail. The facte proclaim: it. Tho main fact is that the German power which marched with insolence, outrage aud perfect equipment, beyond the equipments of all peoples, to the Marne is now cowering in trenches and bewildered about its retreats. It is beaten. It is behaving savagely. It will end only in earning worse punishment. That brings us to the terms of peace. These, the Entente Powers are determined. shall constitute the extremity of tho punishment inflicted by the legions of victory. Until the Gorman power lies flat there will he no ear on the Elntentc side for peace. When that power is beaten into the ground the text of the punishment will be “Kettle’s Song of the Armies.”

A wind blow out of the Prussian plain : It shook Liege, it sacked Louvain, And Belgium shook with the tramp of

Cain. By those, lines all the crimes of the German campaign for the dominion of flic world are covered. What else has been shaken besides Liege? What-else has been sacked besides Louvain? When has the earth not shook with the ti n n p of Cuin ? What sea has not been reddened with murdered blood shed by the pirates of K'ultur? These crimes cannot go unpunished. Prevention is the treatment the world must practise, and prevention is the first object of the peace terms. If the methods of prevention are punitive, so much the worse for Germany and the rulers of Germany. Will at better prevention can there bo than to impose the whole cost of restoration? But over and beyond reparation justice requires punishment. The tramp of Cain will recur if its footsteps arc not made to leave trails of executed ruffians; the sea will again be reddened if executed murderers do not float in the wake of piratic memories; schools and cottages will again be the prey of the destroyer unless

those slaughterers of innocents bo for ever associated with the condign punishment of the instigators. But if there are to bo no indemnities there will,, be no prevention. Indemnities must have a place in the terms of peace, otherwise the enemy will benefit by bis illegal sinking of the mercantile marines qf his -rivals. That would bo turning the other chock. As to annexations, take two cases—the German colonies. and Turkey. The British Dominions adjacent to the first cannot endure the neighbourhood of Knltnr. and the native inhabitants call for protection against the “tramp of Cain.* With regard to Turkey all humanity calls for the suppression of the Turk. Ho has destroyed millions by massacre, and ho is destroying today more mercilessly and more methodically than ever. Ho found gardens, he made them wildernesses, and be keeps them wildernesses. Ho is unspeakable in every way. For his own sake, as well as for the take of the peoples under his sway and the lands in his occupation, ho must be deprived of tho sovereignty ho has abused, and placed under the dominion of superior strength and character. Britain and Russia occupy his furthest provinces. Those, if restored to tho Turk, will cause the revival of tho German dream of Eastern dominiou. which once menaced tho world. If these provinces are restored tho peace of the future is compromised. Tho destruction of the Gorman empire has now become the main object of the war. That destruction—which is tho only guarantee of future peace—requires not only tile dethronement of tho Hohenzollerns, hut also the dismemberment of tho Ottoman empire. These things should ho iu the terms of peace, which the arms of the Entente Powers should bo prepare to enforce, whether joined or not by America and Russia. There ought, however, to be no difficulty in persuading America to accept the obvious righteous truth, or in shotsing the awakening Hussion nation that freed Bulgaria from the peril to the need of protecting tho Armenians and other races against the same unspeakable tyranny. Tho demands colonial and anti-Turkish arc the demands of humanity. They ought not to bo withdrawn at tho bidding of a blind Revolution which has only just begun to see and has not yet begun to feel its feet.